Distant second, Majitha only saving grace for Akali Dal

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 17

Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s resignation from the Union Cabinet over the farm laws and intense campaigning by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal have failed to get the desired results for the party in the civic body poll.

Winning just 294 of the 2,165 seats in all municipal bodies, the SAD stood a distant second to the ruling Congress. While the party lost badly in Sukhbir’s constituency Jalalabad and Harsimrat’s constituency Bathinda, the saving grace was Majitha — the citadel of Sukhbir’s brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia — where it won 10 of the 13 seats.

In Bathinda, the party could manage to win only seven of the 50 seats and in Jalalabad just five of the 17 seats.

Jagtar Sandhu, historian and former journalist, said in the last local bodies election, the Akali Dal was in power with the BJP and hence captured the election, but this time, it was the Congress. “But still, one can’t ignore the results in key constituencies of Bathinda, Jalalabad and Majitha belonging to the top leaders. It seems that Bikram Majithia still has a grip over his constituency,” he said.

In a message on the social media, Sukhbir said the party workers battled unprecedented repression, money bags and government machinery and yet emerged as a force to reckon with. He said the party had stood second and the writing on the wall was that in the 2022 election, the Congress would be routed. Harcharn Bains, party’s principal adviser, said the results were encouraging.